England’s leg-spinner Adil Rashid continued his stellar run in the final of Men’s T20 World Cup, delivering a fantastic spell of 2/22 at an economy rate of just 5.50 to keep Pakistan to 137/8 at the MCG and revealed that getting wickets via slower balls gave him the confidence to keep bowling at that pace.
“I did slow the ball up and getting wickets gave me the confidence to bowl it slower, which is my strength. It’s not an individual game, it’s about the collective, and as long as the team is happy with every bit, that’s the main thing. If the wickets come, great, but it’s all about the team,” said Rashid in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.
Post power-play, Rashid made an immediate impact in the middle overs as he deceived Mohammad Haris with flight on his first ball of the night and the right-handed batter gave a simple catch to long-on.
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In the 12th over of the innings, which was a wicket-maiden, he had cramped captain Babar Azam for a slice on a googly through the off-side, and the ball came back to Rashid for a low catch to his right.
Rashid joined Pakistan’s former left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir (2009), Sri Lanka’s pace all-rounder Angelo Mathews (2012) and West Indies’ leg-spinner Samuel Badree (2016) in the list of bowlers bowling a maiden over in the final of the T20 World Cup.
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He advised England to rely on running between the wickets to chase down the total successfully. “Just assess the pitch and conditions, they may like the ball a bit quicker, so slowing it up was my strength.”
“There are lots of twos and threes out there so running hard is a big one and really sticking to our strengths and being positive and courageous. Hopefully we can now do the job. If we’d been offered 137, so we’d have been very happy.”
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